Latch
by heatofthetuesdaymoments
Summary: Ricky has never felt more live in his entire existence since he's joined Tyler Durden's fight club. But one night, he meets a young girl and all that goes away. He struggles two lives and how he tries to keep them apart and together all at the same time. This is his struggle, and he's not sure what he loves more Fight Club or this girl.
1. Chapter 1

I'm sitting on a bench outside a door in the hospital with Angel Face, I know his name, but Tyler calls him Angel Face, so Angel Face he shall be named. I can feel the rusty, coppery taste of blood going down my throat every time I swallow.

"Tyler always said you can swallow a pint of blood before you become sick." Angel Face says, examining his dry blood covering his knuckles.

Angel Face and I have just returned from getting our asses kicked, our task was to get into a fight and lose, sounded simple enough but people usually avoid confrontation. Since I've joined fight club, I have never felt freer, and yet, there was a tiny part of me, that felt like it was missing out on something.

"Hey." Angel Face says, gesturing his head down the hallway, one eye swollen from the beating he got from a guy who works at the corn dog stand not far from here.

My eyes focus to the center of the hallway.

"She's hot." Angel Face says, a devilish grin spreading across his face.

She was indeed attractive, but calling her 'Hot' was like saying the 'Colosso dell'Appennino' by Giambologna was just alright. No, she was beauty itself, beauty trapped in a human vessel, carved by the ancient people who wanted to add a breathtaking face to the gods they were devoted to.

"You should go talk to her man." Angel Face says, nudging me lightly.

I chuckle, "I'm sure the busted lip, the broken hand, and the black eyes will definitely make me a bona fied candidate." I say, as I lean against the hallway wall.

Her coppery colored hair is layered but wavy, it reminds me of these satin sheets I saw once, back when the material bullshit mattered. I was trying to find a mattress set that would get me laid; I thought black satin seemed a bit too much, I didn't have the sex appeal to own black sheets, white Egyptian cotton made me feel like a prude, I was already working in an office building for Christ's sake I didn't need to bring my work home, but when I saw the copper colored set, it made me feel like I was on the beach, somewhere I could relax, somewhere I could breathe and not be bothered by the middle class troubles I had to face daily. Of course those sheets were extremely expensive for some reason so I ended buying baby blue cotton sheets.

I never brought anyone home.

"I'm saying you have to date her," Angel Face replies, looking at the girl, who is off in her own thoughts, "I'm just trying to get you laid."

Angel Face is a part of the human race where no matter what they do, they will always be attractive. I'm pretty sure if he became a serial murder, this victim's last thoughts would be '_At least someone attractive is killing me,_' I swallow another mouth full of blood, and look at the girl again.

Only this time she's looking back at me with these gorgeous Amber eyes, I feel my voice caught in my throat, I want to tell her she's beautiful, more beautiful than any art painting I've ever seen but I don't, I sit there, stunned, looking at her with one swollen eye that looks more like a slit, and my very tired looking eye.

"Hi." Angel Face says for me.

"Hello." The girl replies, she looks so soft, so fragile and at the same time fierce, she's wearing a cut up Led Zepplin t-shirt, skinny black jeans, and docs.

Girls like this make me grow a big rubbery one, if you know what I mean.

Angel Face tells her his name, and then points a bloody hand to me, "This is my buddy Ricky, don't worry about him he's socially inept." He tells her, smiling that devilish grin of his.

I wave awkwardly since my hand is in a cast, "Hi." I say, that's the best I can muster, I have never been gifting with socializing well with others but this girl, she made me so nervous, I start perspiring from every sweat gland possible.

The girl smiles at the two of us, "You guys get into a domestic?" She asks us, I'm not sure if she's joking or not but I smile just because she smiled, if she jumped off a bridge I'd probably go after her. She's only spoken seven syllables to me and I am already thinking about what she looks like in the morning, how she smells, what movies she likes, does she like Chinese food.

A door close to her closes; Angel Face and I hear the sound of someone's heavy foot, heading toward her direction.

"Hey, you ready to go?" The girl asks a very tall guy, she gets up and wraps a black sweater around her tiny frame.

The guy in question looks about my age, he's skinny and long limbed, and he seems like the quiet type. He looks down at her and nods. He looks across the small hallway and smiles quickly at us, Angel Face and I reply with a slight nod of the head.

The girl smiles and grabs hold of his hand, their fingers lock together, my heart breaks.

"Have a good night." She tells us.

"Same to you," Angel Face says, "safe travels."

I feel my body aching to run after her, to hold her, to kiss her, but I don't. I slouch down in my seat and wait for the doctor to come to our assistance. This will be the last time I see her, I can feel it.

"What a waste." Angel Face says.

I am Jack's internal screaming.

I am Jack's aching heart.

I am Jack's remorse.

**N/A: **Thank you for reading, please review, follow, favorite, do as you please. I shall update another chapter soon, and let you know. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

We're sitting in a booth at Lou's Tavern, its Wednesday, only three more nights until fight club. I'm hanging out with some co-workers after a long day at work. I saw Tyler today, he asked me for a box of pens, so naturally I gave him two boxes. Ya see the thing about fight club, is you can only talk about fight club in the time it starts and ends. Today was not the day to talk about fight club, today was about printing papers, filing records, making copy after copy, after copy, after copy.

"Two beers please."

A familiar voice draws from the conversation the guys are having, something about the Microsoft meeting today, I turn around and there, sitting at a table is the girl from the hospital. It had been about two weeks since our awkward encounter. I had tried to stop thinking about her, but it only gave me an erection every time I did and then just led to masturbating while watching infomercial on the tube. Seeing her now made my cock twitch.

Before I know what I'm doing, I realize I'm standing at her table, staring down at her. She just got off work, like the rest of us, she's in black slacks and a button down purple shirt. I want to tell her she's beautiful, that she'd probably be beautiful until people were too stupid, too blind to see what really beauty was. But instead, I'm standing at her table with a beer in my hand.

"Hey." I say.

She looks up from her beeper, "Oh, hey I remember you." She says, gifting me with a smile.

"Yeah, I thought I should make up from my awkwardness back at the hospital." I can feel myself smiling, I'm sweating bullets, and I'm pretty sure she can see, I bet she thinks I look gross.

"Are you okay, you look like someone did a number on you." She says, I can feel those amber eyes scanning my body.

I look too casual, my shirt has an ink stain, my sleeves are pushed up to my elbows, my hair is a mess, I should find some excuse now and make a run for it.

"Would you like to join me?"

Or I could join her, sitting with her sounds good. I take the seat closet to her, and place my beer on the table.

"I heard you say two beers, is someone else joining you?" I ask her.

"My brother," She tells me, "you saw him at the hospital." Excitement rushes all over my body, she looks at me one more time and smiles, "You have really pretty eyes." She tells me.

I can feel myself blushing, "Thank you." I say, looking at those amazing amber eyes of hers, "Your eyes are really cool." I tell her.

This time she's blushing.

I can feel my heart swell with joy, the adrenaline running through my veins is at its peek, even more than when I have my turn in fight club. I want to explore her body (with her permission of course) and tell her how much I find her beautiful, how she lights up the room, and makes forget my troubles, I want to kiss every inch of her body. I want to worship her.

"Hey Aaron," She says, I turn my attention to Aaron, the gawky guy smiles at me and waves, "Aaron this is Ricky, he was at the hospital remember."

Aaron smiles, nods at me, and takes his seat. "Hi." He says shyly.

I smile back and extend my hand out for him to take, he does, we shake hands, we smile, this is the male dominance two-step every guy does when it comes to courting a female, in that one handshake, we eye each other and ask, _'Who are you and are you worthy,' _of course this a one way thing, in which Aaron is sizing me up. I see her roll her yes.

"Hey, I never got your name." I say, once the handshake is over and we relax in our seats.

The girl eyes me with those luscious amber eyes, they remind me of the pools of liquid gold, King Mitus would envy her eyes, "My name is Anna," she says, "I'm sorry, I thought I told you and your friend my name that time."

"It's probably better you didn't." Aaron remarks.

"Aaron." Anna hisses.

I smile, "No it's true, and my friend and I did not look like the friendliest people that night." I reply, taking a gulp of my beer.

"Did you get into a fight?" Aaron asks me.

All the attention is drawn to me, I try not to look at Anna so much, but its hard, I just want to be alone with her, and tell her… everything?

"Not with him, with some guy at a corndog stand." I tell them.

"What happened to him?" Anna asks me.

"He intervened when the guys friend starting contributing to our brawl." I reply.

"Why did you guys fight?" Anna asks me.

This is a tricky question, considering I made the first hit, but Tyler's orders had been clear, get in a fight and lose, I had done what I was assigned to do and nothing more. I want to tell her this and more but I simply shrug, "Just some drunk." I reply.

Those Amber eyes stare at me, scanning my body, my face, my mouth, I do the same, it's only been a few short seconds, but when our eyes met, I swear it felt like we had been staring at each other for years. Aaron drinks his beer and then clears his throat, "Well glad you came out alive."

I chuckle, "Me too."

Anna has a shy smile on her face, her expression is unreadable, and it's driving me crazy.

"I see some college buddies," Aaron says, getting up from his seat, "see you around sis, thanks for the beer." He says, kissing her on the cheek, "Nice meeting you Ricky, glad to see you all healed up." He tells me, I shake his hand one more time. His expression is just as unreadable as Anna's, but the vibe feels good, otherwise, he wouldn't have left us alone. He's giving me a chance.

"So," Anna says, resting her elbow on the table, her hair falls delicately in ripples, "what do you do Ricky, what did this system classify you as?"

I'm so taken aback by the question and turned on all at the same time.

"White-collared slave." I reply, I see her eye me as she takes a swig from her bottle.

"That makes two of us." Anna says, licking her lips.

I am trying really hard to be cool, but it's hard when she's acting like this.

I smile, "What do you do to relieve the tension from society?" I ask her.

Her eyebrows raise slightly, she smiles at me with those amber eyes of hers, "I don't watch television." She says.

"Not even the news?" I ask her.

She shrugs, "It all just seems so pointless," she tells me, "I read the newspaper, I just like reading, I only use a computer at work, I listen to music, but I love the feeling of paper in between my fingers, and sometimes when books are old, I like to smell them in between my reading, they just smell like a time period before as this mediocre bullshit."

I am pretty sure my jaw is slack. She gives me this look like she just ripped her pants or something, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant like this, it's just something I do." She says, taking a swig of her beer again.

"Don'- Don't be sorry Anna." I say clearing my throat, "I think that's awesome." It's the best I can come up with.

"Really?" She asks me.

I nod, "Seriously, more people should be like you." I say, I can she her blush again, I'm glad I can do that to her.

"Well thanks Ricky." She says, our fingers are just an inch away from each other, I can feel her shoe brush against mine, she bites her lip, I bite mine.

"So what do you do to relieve the tension?" She asks me.

'_I beat the shit out of people and pretend it's all the people who told me no,' _I clear my throat again, "I paint." I tell her.

"Really?"

"Yes," I say, this is not a complete, I do enjoy painting, but I'm not prodigy, I mostly look at the art books I've collected since high school, and try to paint them in my own way, sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't, on those days, I go to fight club and take it out on some newbie, "I really love painting."

"That's awesome." Anna replies, I'm the one blushing this time.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE BAR'S CLOSING, YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO HOME, BUT YOU GOTTA GO!" Irvin yells, people begin to pack up their things and leave, including Anna. Irvin looks at me and bows his head, I bow my head back, I'm leaving too, but it's only right acknowledging a member of fight club. It's Wednesday, I see Walter, this guy we call The Mechanic, and Angel Face enter the bar.

Angel Face winks and me giving me the thumbs up, I shake my head, as I get up from the table, making sure Anna has everything she needs.

"Well, I guess it's time to go." Anna says, she hands me a piece of paper, "If you ever want to do non-sociable things together, call me." She adds, Aaron is by her side when I look up, we both say bye, and as I watch Anna leave, my chest swells up with joy, so much so, that I actually attend fight club tonight.

There's a new guy, someone from The Mechanic's work, he's a newbie, so I pulverize his ass, and think about all those cable channels Anna doesn't watch, and how many books she probably has, until the guy goes limp.

I am Jack's devilish grin.

**N/A: **I love my story, I don't care if no one reads it, I'm going to continue writing, and if you do read it than bless you. Thanks for reading if you did :)


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